I. China Statistical Yearbook 2019 is an annual statistical publication, which reflects comprehensively the economic and social development of China. It covers data for 2018 and key statistical data in recent years and some historically important years at the national level and the local levels of province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government.

To facilitate readers, the Brief Introduction at the beginning of each chapter provides a summary of the main contents of the chapter, data sources, statistical scope, statistical methods and historical changes. At the end of each chapter, Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators are included.

III. The national data in this book do not include those of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province, except for the divisions of administrative areas, the area of the national territory and forest resources and otherwise specified. In accordance with the principles set down in the Basic Law of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the Basic Law of Macao Special Administrative Region, statistically Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland of China are three mutually independent regions, each following its own and different statistical systems and legal provisions in conducting statistical operations independently. Statistics on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region as included in this yearbook are provided by the Census and Statistics Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Statistics and Census Service of the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region respectively; and are edited by the National Bureau of Statistics.

IV. Eastern region, central region, western region and northeastern region in the Yearbook are divided as following:

V. The units of measurement used in the Yearbook are internationally standard measurement units, and newly published and implemented Product Categories are uniformly used.

VI. Please refer to the newly published version of the Yearbook for updated historical data. Statistical discrepancies on totals and relative figures due to rounding are not adjusted in the Yearbook.

VII. Notations used in the Yearbook: (blank space) indicates that the data are unknown, or are not available; “#” indicates a major breakdown of the total; and “*”or “①”indicates footnotes at the end of the table. About the notations in the chapters of Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, please refer to the brief introduction in relevant chapters.

VIII. In comparison with China Statistical Yearbook 2018, following revisions have been made in this new version in terms of the statistical contents and in editing: Of the chapter “National Accounts”, value-added by sector of gross regional product and relevant indicators of gross regional product (by income approach and by expenditure approach) are deleted. Of the chapter “Resources and Environment”, table of Identified Reserves of Major Minerals are added. Of the chapter “Investment in Fixed Assets”, amount indicators change to relative indicators such as growth rate and proportion, and tables of Total Investment in Fixed Assets by Three Strata of Industry and Non-governmental Investment in Fixed Assets are added. Of the chapter “Foreign trade and Economic Cooperation”, indicator of net overseas direct investment (flow) are added. Of the chapter “Industry”, with industrial enterprises above designated size, indicators of revenue (cost) from principal business change into business revenue (cost). Of the chapter “Wholesale and Retail Trades”, tables of Sales of Passenger Cars and Sales of Second-hand Passenger Cars are added. Of the chapter “Transport, Postal and Telecommunication Services, and Software Industry”, indicators of fixed telephone, household telephone, public telephone, roaming services, dial-up Internet access are deleted. Data of 2018 in some tables are absent, because the data verification of the Fourth Economic Census is in progress.